Sweet Dream or a Beautiful Nightmare?
by words end here
Summary: Liam/Naomi; set during and post 2x04. "Somewhere along the way, fighting for her fixed him." Mentions of Ethan/Silver/Dixon and Navid/Adrianna. Oneshot.


**A/N: **Liam and Naomi, because they are _the _couple, even more so than my OTP, Annie/Kansas. As for the title, _Sweet Dreams _is absolutely my favourite song from the Sasha Fierce album and there's the small fact that I adore Beyoncé anyway. (I'D TOTALLY SQUEE IF SWEET DREAMS WAS THE NAOMI/LIAM REUNION SONG PEOPLE.) I love reviews! And this is set post 2x04 and takes all previous events into account. There's also a snippet of 2x05 promo.

**Sweet Dream/Beautiful Nightmare**

* * *

_When I close my eyes, I'm going out of my head,_

_Lost in a fairytale, can you hold my hands and be my guide?_

* * *

Liam has never known regret. He has never felt that pang of doubt before someone is about to do something so monumentally destructive, that it is actually life-altering. Never, not once. He lived in the now, not pausing to think about consequence. Because for him; such a concept was not feasible. He had the looks to charm the girls, the alpha-male attitude to let the guys know just _exactly _who was in charge and a comeback for every challenge and anybody who actually had the courage to question a guy with his presence. He'd been doing that all his, life - it was just in his nature. His mom was with some quasi-alcoholic plastic surgeon and he retaliated against it by constantly undermining him. Annie refused to be susceptible to his charm and he retaliated by teasing her.

Naomi made him _feel _and he retaliated by running away, or betraying her.

Then he remembers he did both, and for the first time in his life, regrets rushes inside of him and for the first time, he feels a singular tear slide down his cheek.

He replays every single scene inside his head, a roll of film that will never end. He tries to pinpoint the exact moment sleeping with someone else even crossed his mind, and he just fails. Just like he failed at realising what he had, how he failed to appreciate that comfort and security. At first, he only thought of her as Queen Bitch but there was so much more than that. She might be the only person who he has ever met who believes in that type of immense love can exist. It can be won, it can be treasured. And other than that, she was _his _Queen Bitch and he loves her.

And it's only now when the realization hits.

But as much as he knows Naomi, he knows himself.

And he knows he can't be that guy for her. He's betrayed her enough, he knows and she deserves more. And that's what he wants, he wants to be more.

So he silently vows to fight for her when he returns home. Whatever it takes.

* * *

Liam has never known jealousy.

Everything practically flew into his lap. The lifestyle, the girls and sometimes when he focused, the grades too. He rarely worked for anything, until something (or rather, someone) made him work.

Some guys are just intimidated by her, but she's Naomi Clark and most guys with functioning eyesight can't help but flirt shamelessly, even if they know nothing will come of it because her standards will never be lowered.

They flock around her; she brushes them off with a wave, because she knows that they're all there for her. Everyone knew Ade was taken and Silver was too, even though she's never admit it.

He's jealous of the guys, he's jealous of her friends and there's a fine line between jealousy and desire when it comes to the power her elder sister exercises over Naomi. Jen's word is law to the girl, and she's blinded by a mixture of admiration and pity and the type of love/hate cycle that only exists between sisters.

He attempts to play the game, to challenge Jen but it amounts to nothing. She's willing to lie for the rest of her days, deny, deny and deny again, bribe. He doesn't what to do.

Then he finds himself being roped in by Annie, who insists Naomi needs the truth and at first he's sceptical, but she's right. Naomi does need the truth.

Annie spurts a heap of lies (but hey, it's nothing new in this town) and just when he thought things couldn't worsen...

* * *

She cannot bring herself to believe Annie.

The whole time Annie gave her that judgemental, superior look and had the nerve to say; "We need to tell you the truth about that night, Naomi, prom night."

Naomi could feel a knife inching closer to her neck. It was the first time the roles had been reversed and for once, Annie had more power than she.

She clears her throat. And Naomi Clark does not clear her throat; she's the one with the snide, clever comebacks.

For this, she'll have nothing and she knows this before Annie even says anything more.

"We totally slept together."

But the 'confession' is dressed up too falsely, his eyes widen too much and Annie says it so flippantly.

Liam turns to Annie in shock and assures Naomi that she's lying, and Annie rambles on about having sex the whole time they were together and at first, she doesn't know what to believe.

She hates that it's him she believes, but is the concept of Liam sleeping with Annie all that foreign?

Her eyes don't tear from him the whole time, then Annie mentions Ethan and it becomes all too much.

Annie wins this time. She won Ethan, she won this little confrontation but Naomi knows the girl better savour it because she'll make damn sure Annie never knows what it is to win ever again.

She won't win Liam. She never did and she never will, because Naomi knows she's lying.

* * *

She has become more observant since _him._

Naomi rarely found herself caring about anyone outside of her family, Ethan, Silver or Adrianna (forever her only exception) but now she finds herself caring about almost everyone she comes across.

She does not know why, but every time she sits at lunch and conversation deters to Navid's rambling and Ade trying to get him to _shut-up, baby, _but Naomi's eyes stray somewhere else, to someone else. Sometimes it's a random, sometimes it's Annie, but most of the time, it's him. She looks at them, and actually _sees _straight through them, if they're heartbroken, sad or lucky enough to be genuinely happy. And then she'll wonder who did the heartbreaking, or caused the sadness or who had the ability to make someone that happy. She's forgotten what that feels like and she wants it back.

Of course she loves her girls; loves that Adrianna cares enough to say _"I thought you were over him?" _Even when she fine rightly knows Naomi never was, but cared enough to ask again anyway. She loves that Silver is on her team again after being so quick to take to Annie, even Naomi knew she didn't earn forgiveness from Silver. She loves that they go out, drink to forget their lives unravel a bit more every day but then they'll have a ridiculous girly sleepover and Naomi is reminded, if they have each other, it's always going to be okay.

Even if she doesn't have _him. _

* * *

"What are you doing here?"

Naomi can feel her eyes sting when she lets herself look at him. He's still the most gorgeous she has even seen and known (even ahead of first love Ethan) and she hates that every time she looks at him, she sees the cocky mystery she fell for, instead of the guy who cheated on her with the worst possible person.

He tells her he's meeting somebody, all she can conclude is that it's Annie and she storms on, fully intending to never mumble so much as a word in his presence ever again.

His tone is of something she'd never hear from him, a mixture of regret and sadness. A tone that says _I'm sorry. _

"Look, none of what Annie said on the boat was true. None of it. We never had sex. Not a bunch of times. Not once. Never."

The way he says _never _makes her heart beat twice and she tells herself to _stop it, _he's not exactly been known for abstaining and everyone who loves her loves Annie better, anyway. Ethan and Silver.

Then she remembers Silver came back to her, they found each other when they needed to most and she wonders if it's some sort of sign.

Then he says _Naomi, _in that way that no one else says her name and there's a fine line between her needing to embrace him and her wanting to slap him.

"You have to trust me."

For a second, she considers doing exactly that – because she knows Annie was lying.

The Jen comes along – _thank God _she thinks fleetingly, because she was just about to trust the boy she knows she never could.

"What do you know about trust, huh?" She mocks, protectively flinging an arm over her as Liam stares on in complete rage. What he did to Naomi was terrible, sometimes he thinks it's unforgivable, but what Jen's doing...there's not a word to describe that type of malice.

"Trust, is what Naomi and I have." She begins haughtily, and he see's Naomi's eyes falling to the floor and a small smile of gratitude flashed at Jen. "We look out for each other; we take care of each other. I can trust her, she can trust me. And we both can't trust you."

All he can do is look at Naomi helplessly.

And all the confidence, all his strength, it's gone. He'll never have her again and he knows he'll only have himself to blame when he watches her smile and laugh and be happy without him.

* * *

His luck is gone, all of it. All he can do is mope, brood and be jealous, for the rest of his days. He honestly doesn't know where to go from here.

Until his mother actually gets something right for once, and just like that, he's back in the game.

* * *

Jen's married, Naomi is frustrated, Jen's going back; Naomi tells her just how it is.

"I'm not worried about my stupid trust fund. I'm worried about _you._" She seizes her sister's shoulders, pleading with her to pull herself together and look reality straight in the eye. "Look at me. _You._ Okay? You're not going back to some loveless marriage with some loser who'll cheat on you like dad did with mom. No."

Naomi knows what it is to be cheated on all too well, when Adrianna was at rehab and Silver was attached to Annie's hip it felt like betrayal was her best friend.

So really, is it all that surprising that she won't dare let her sister speak of it?

* * *

Liam knew Jen wouldn't tell the truth. So he did what he always did, fought back – although this time it was silent and sneaky. Somehow, that made it more of a victory.

So for the first time in weeks, he smiles a happy, victorious smile, _Naomi will never believe we slept together. _He replays the recording about ten times and he actually falls asleep with that feeling you only experience when you know you're going to win.

* * *

"Oh my God. Naomi's wearing _sweats?" _Adrianna gasps, as if Naomi's just committed murder. It's hilarious in a way that's not even remotely funny, because if Ade or Naomi _did _murder, they'd be each others first call for help to hide the corpse.

Silver's eyes widen, half disgusted, half amused as they watch her at the lockers. "Yeah."

Naomi approaches them like this is an everyday occurrence, as if Naomi wasn't the one who stated law, and law used to be _never wear sweats, ever, _when they were thirteen of course.

But at age thirteen, Naomi's biggest betrayal was Ethan not kissing her before class started and the closest thing to heartbreak was a math test.

"What?" She asks, in response to Silver's smile and Adrianna's raised eyebrows. "You know Ade if your eyebrows were any higher they'd be on the ceiling. What?"

"If this were Mean Girls, you'd totally be Regina. Showing up in sweats? Naomi, really. I would have brought a camera." Adrianna giggles.

"No worries." Silver takes out her phone, it makes a shutter sound and Naomi just rolls her eyes.

"Seriously, Janis." Naomi glares at Silver.

"Oh shut up. You know that twenty years from now, this will be a golden memory." Silver replies playfully, and knowingly.

Naomi can only smile as a comeback, because she knows Silver is right. She's _always_ right.

Navid kisses Adrianna's temple as a good morning, Dixon and Silver just kind of stare at each other before they engage in their latest bickering match but Naomi can't feel anything except loneliness because hey, at least Dixon and Silver care enough to bicker.

Liam doesn't even notice what she's wearing, his eye's are always stuck on hers.

"We need to talk." He implores, "Maybe we could do dinner or something." He asks, as sweetly as he can.

"Talk, right. As if that gets us anywhere. You know, if you really cared Liam, you wouldn't be talking, you'd be _doing._"

"That's what I have been...doing. Listen Naomi, I need to see you in private, after school. Please." He asks. She hears desire in his voice.

"Why should I give you my time, Liam? I think I've given you enough." She says, more than bitter. Her eyes lock with his and now, she just can't hold back (when has she ever?) "You know, I knew a guy like you once, he was the most important part of my life. He betrayed me too. You know, let's stop whatever game we're playing and maybe one day I won't be attracted to the bad boy."

"Maybe one day," He smirks, "today isn't that day Naomi."

He's fixed. He's himself again, he feels that. Somewhere along the way, fighting for _her_ fixed _him_.

She stops and looks him up and down.

"You've got a lot of nerve." She says condescendingly.

"We both know that. Naomi, how many times in your life have you known when everything's about to change?"

She left speechless. She's not about to tell him about Prom night – she's not supposed to be hurting, but the wound is as raw as ever. She's not going to tell him that she had one of those moments when he took her hand and it started to snow. It didn't matter that it was fake snow. That moment was the realest sense of love and want she'd ever felt sweep over her.

"Please." He implores once more. "Then you can be done with me, if that's what you want."

"You know fine well that's what I want." She replies snidely. "But hey, maybe we can talk, just to see what excuse you make this time." She adds, half bitter, half forgiving.

He can't help but grin. "I'll call you."

She rolls her eyes and joins her friends.

* * *

He styles his hair a but more precisely, he looks in the mirror a little longer, he makes sure his car is nothing less than immaculate.

He spends his Friday night alone at the restaurant, waiting for her the way he knows she waited for him to let the walls down.

* * *

Saturday morning, he pulls up outside her home to end this. He can't take it anymore.

It's ten in the morning, Naomi's about to hit gym, Jen is still in her robe when she meets him.

"I understand why you didn't show up last night." He says when she opens the door, "I wasn't there to waste your time. I was there to tell you something. You need to hear this. And I'm sorry for it's going to do to you, but you deserve the truth.

Jen frantically runs over to her sister when Liam hits play.

_Naomi will never believe we slept together. Naomi will never believe we slept together. Naomi will never believe we slept together._

Naomi slowly turns around, slaps her sister, and slams the door. Liam wants to smile in victory at Jen, but all he can do is look on in hurt, because Naomi's hurting.

* * *

It's exactly two weeks and two days on a Monday morning when they actually discuss it.

They're at the lockers (of course they are, it's their thing).

"I'm sorry." He begins earnestly. "I –

"No. You know, you've been doing a lot of apologizing lately. And I'm not exactly your biggest fan, but thank you. For the truth." She clarifies.

He knows he should ask to be her friend, but he knows he'll always want more than that. And maybe it's too soon, but he asks her out anyway, He just can't help himself.

She declines. Of course she does.

"You know, I've never said this to a guy," she begins as they stroll to class, like they have endless time on their hands, "because I've always believed girls are there for each other, always and boys are disposable. But I think we could be friends, Liam. We've been through too much already not to be."

He smiles, it's a sad one. But he knows what he's doing and he knows what she's wants, and she's Naomi Clark so if she wants to be friends, they'll be friends.

"I agree." He chokes out. "How are you, after all that?" He asks, concern lining his tone.

"I'm good. Been better, been worse. Jen is out of the picture, by the way. She's probably begging for forgiveness from my oh-so moralised father as we speak." She says, like she's won a victory too. Perhaps, she has.

"Good." He replies. "Thanks you for not erasing me completely out of it." He adds.

They both pause for a while whilst their peers flood into their respective classes. She contemplates throwing all this friends stuff to hell and thrashing him against the locker to make out, but she wants him in her life. She doesn't want him to be disposable. Even if means sitting on second row.

"Why are you only nice to me?" She can't help but question; it's so blatantly obvious.

He's walking away when she asks it and there's quote a considerable distance between them.

But it's not distance that cannot be closed with time, friendship, forgiveness and understanding.

"_Because._ You...you're the only one who has ever gotten it outta me. There's an exception to every rule, right?"

He walks away and she nods slowly, involuntarily.

Her heart beats faster like she knows it shouldn't, because she's his exception.

* * *

Naomi being Naomi, she's the type of girl who throws a birthday party at her house for one of her best friends.

"So, Erin Silver," she says, knowing she's the only person who can really get away with calling her Erin, "What can I get you for your seventeenth birthday other than dragging Ethan Ward home, huh?"

"Don't," Silver says as they eat lunch, about to be joined by Adrianna. She then throws Naomi the death glare, "I cannot talk about Ethan. Ethan is like Lord Voldemort. Don't talk about him, because when we talk about Ethan, crap happens. And do I look like I need crap?" She says, then proceeding to toss a French fry at Naomi's mane of hair.

_Still not over him, _Naomi thinks, sympathetically, more than anything else. Well, it wasn't as if she didn't know what that felt like.

"What about you and Liam? Been hanging out?" Silver asks, shifting the topic desperately.

"No. We're just friends." Naomi replies innocently.

"Right..." Silver smiles.

"Liam is my Lord Voldemort." Naomi's eyes narrow and she throws a fry back at Silver, Adrianna just knocks both their heads together when she joins them, because she can't believe she in the position to think this, but maybe Ade's life is for once, the one that makes most sense.

* * *

Silver has been relentlessly telling them how she's going to win Dixon back, and its December the sixth when everyone knows she will. After all, we all have that one favourite birthday present amongst the heap waiting to be opened.

Naomi's been happy lately. The type of happy that makes you want to give people like Annie Wilson another chance – she even invites her to Silver's birthday. She always did believe in karma, so by inviting Annie she hoped she'd get a huge reward in return. Juvenile and strange she knows, but that's how it is. They don't talk, but she doesn't want anyone to feel alone anymore. There's been enough of that.

The alcohol has been flowing at Naomi's home for three hours now, its midnight when the Prom King and Queen are King and Queen together again.

Silver had it all planned out. They'd drink until she was tipsy enough to confess her love for Dixon all over again, Dixon would fall for her all over again, they'd talk, they'd walk back inside and she even gave Naomi the signal to switch the dance music immediately over to Paramore's _The Only Exception, _Silver and Dixon would slow dance and they'd kiss.

That's exactly how it happens. It flows so seamlessly, that if Silver wasn't one of Naomi's best friends, she'd be completely sickened.

It's Navid and Adrianna. It's Silver and Dixon.

If she was here a year ago, she wouldn't have bet on being the one left alone.

Naomi texts Ethan, they've been keeping in touch through random texts.

_You can dance with me at my birthday party but you can't at Silvers? (: - N_

_Oh that great night when I confessed I'd cheated on you. Good times :p I'm sorry. For then and for tonight, are you okay? – E_

_Not that night and tonight, not really. – N_

From one great love to the next, Liam taps her shoulder.

"Want to dance?" He asks, brimming with confidence. Although when she takes his hand, it's really warm.

They dance; she lets her head rest on his chest.

"How have you been?" He asks.

"I'm better now." She says - it's not flirtatious, just honest.

"Me too." He replies. She can hear his heartbeat, an urgent, vibrant sound.

The song ends, she leaves him to go outside for air and he follows, not wanting her to be alone.

* * *

"Why are you running from me?" Liam asks, clearly angry and confused.

"Well last time I ran _to _you,you ended up in my sister's bed." She replies. "I'm _Naomi Clark. _I don't spend the night wanting to dance with the guy who slept with my sister. I just _don't._"

"I know..." He trails off.

"You're supposed to be a friend. You're not supposed to be jealous of any guy I might be on a date with, you're not supposed to let your eyes linger on me, and you're certainly not supposed to be chasing me, okay? Because that's all you want. It's all you've ever wanted – the chase. Well I'm done running." She yells, full Naomi Clark force.

"I'm sorry. You told me to stop saying things and to start doing them. I have. I've proved to you how sorry I am, and I think that's why you're running."He shouts back.

"I am not running now." She tells him sternly, finally approaching him. "So what are you going to do Liam, now you don't have to chase anymore?"

He captures her lips with his. That's what he does.

* * *

Two nights later they have a date. She insists on dinner and the night spent doing something, she suggests drag racing, he chuckles and suggests "You're beautiful – let's just stay in."

But because he'll do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, he picks her up at eight, opens the door for her as she gets into the car and takes them anywhere she wants to go. Liam has never known what is to be happy just by making someone else happy – until now.

But by the time they stop making out and his hands finally let go of her curls, it's eight forty five.

"You've always been terrible at timing." She says it fondly, like she's completely endeared by it.

She is.

He kisses her hand, finally starts the car and turns on the radio. "What can I tell you baby? I've always been bad. But from now on, that privilege is reserved for only you."

_You can be a sweet dream, or a beautiful nightmare,_

_either way I don;t wanna wake up from you  
_

* * *

End.


End file.
